Exercise 1

Take a look at the list of bad things that can happen to you on a trip.
Have you ever experienced any of these situations while traveling?
Share your personal experience with your partner.

A. ight delays
B. lost or stolen luggage
C. illness or injury
D. bad weather
E. horrible accommodation
F. getting robbed

In pairs, think about other negative things

that can happen to you on a trip.

Exercise 2
Complete the sentences with the words from the box.
Change the form of verbs if needed.
What kind of problems do you think these people face on a trip?

• pickpocket + get • sprain + bandaged

• ll + located • end + boredom
• pour + soaking • relentless + wink

1. Just my luck! The moment I arrived, the heavens opened up and it

__________ like crazy. I had to walk around with a __________ wet
umbrella, looking like a drowned rat. - _____
2. The room was tiny, the bed uncomfortable, and the noise from the
street was __________. I didn’t sleep a __________! - _____
3. I had to spend hours __________ out paperwork and tracking it down. I
was wearing the same clothes until they nally __________ my
suitcase. - _____
4. Someone __________ me right in the middle of a crowded market!
They __________ away with my wallet and all my cash. - _____
5. I ended up __________ my ankle during a hike, and now I'm stuck
hobbling around with a __________ foot. What a disaster! - _____
6. I __________ up spending half a day at the airport, going crazy with
__________. - _____
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Exercise 3
Read two stories about vacations gone wrong and
answer the questions about each of them.

1. Where and why did they travel?

2. Who did they travel with?
3. What problems did they have?
4. How did they feel during the trip?
5. How do they feel about the trip now?

‘Our reservation had been lost’

Loralee Bergdall, 20, Berkeley, Calif.

When I was 16, I took a two-week explorative trip to Fiji with my school. We were
sent to collect data to form a national park on their second-largest island, Vanua
Levu. The night before the trip, our chaperone got a noti cation that our reservation
had been “lost.” So eight hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport,
they had to scramble to nd the reservation for all 16 of us. It was a four-hour drive
to the airport, and we were unsure if we would even be able to make it.
We got to the airport and were told at one check-in desk that our reservation had
been handed over to an airline on the opposite side of the airport. Not only did we
have to run through the San Francisco Airport with our 40-pound hiking packs, but
we also had to run through security because we were going to miss our boarding
time. We dashed through security but, as we boarded, realised that they had
overbooked the plane, and two of us were not on board and were left behind. The
two did not end up rejoining the group for a whole day.

The airline lost half of our baggage, and we were forced to make the trip without it.
At the airport, someone had a heart attack, and the ight attendants were frantically
looking for a doctor. Luckily there was one on board, and the person made it o in
time. Now two hours delayed, we made the 11-hour ight to Fiji.
Everything went smoothly for the two weeks, but on the way back, our ight was
delayed due to bad weather, and we were stuck on the airport oor. Most of us had
some mysterious stomach bug that made us extremely ill for the 24 hours, myself
included. I remember sleeping on the oor, wrapped in my sleeping bag, crying
because I was so sick and just wanted to get home. By the time we landed in San
Francisco, I was so ready to go home, I left the airport at 3 a.m. and made the four-
hour drive back home! It was such a wild experience, but I would absolutely go
back to Fiji in a heartbeat.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/02/vacations-gone-wrong/
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 ‘The stomach bug got us all in the end’
Autumn Gonzalez, 44, Portland, Ore.

When I was 10, back in 1987, my dad took my sister and me to Disneyland. The
plan was to meet my uncle and my cousins at the hotel we were staying at in
Anaheim, and we would all enjoy the three-day vacation together. Everything was
going swimmingly until, on the rst night we were there, one of my cousins just
leaned over and threw up on the pier as we were walking back to the hotel from
dinner. It turns out that my other cousin had caught some stomach bug on the train
to Anaheim and had spent the day puking in the bathroom on the train. Cut to
waking up to the sounds of my uncle throwing up into a trash bin the next morning,
and later that morning, me chirping “I can’t believe we’re nally here!” at the gates
of Disneyland and then immediately bending over and throwing up.
The pinnacle of the trip had to be when my cousin started throwing up and, to be
“helpful,” my other cousin and I tried to prop her up and stu her head into a trash
receptacle so at least she wouldn’t be getting puke all over the Magic Kingdom.
We managed to make it through the rest of the trip without much fanfare, but then
my sister started puking as soon as we got home, and then my dad picked it up
right when she nished! The stomach bug got us all in the end. This whole
adventure has become part of family lore, and thankfully, now, we just howl with
laughter, not horror.

Exercise 4
Match the text messages to their senders
(Loralee or Autumn) based on the stories.

1.
6.

2.
7.

3.
8.

4.
9.

5. 10.
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Exercise 5
Read the following sentences and answer the questions.

1. If the airline hadn't overbooked the plane, none of us

would've been left behind! It was a complete shock!
2. If I hadn't vomited immediately after entering
Disneyland, I would have enjoyed the experience much
more…
3. If it hadn't been for the thrilling experiences and
unforgettable moments, this trip wouldn't have been as
remarkable!
4. It would have been perfect if we hadn't all come down
with a stomach bug!

1. Are we talking about the situations in the past or present?

2. What happened in real life in each of these sentences?
3. What tense do we use in the conditional if part of each sentence?
4. What structure do we use in the result clause?

Exercise 6
Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs.

1. If I _________ (to know) the hotel had such terrible reviews, I _________ (to
book) it for our vacation.
2. If the tour guide _________ (to get) lost, we _________ (to end up) wandering
aimlessly for hours.
3. If we _________ (to miss) our connecting ight, we _________ (to spend) the
entire day stuck at the airport.
4. If the travel agency _________ (to provide) accurate information, we _________
(to arrive) at a closed and abandoned attraction.
5. If we _________ (to lose) our passports, we _________ (to have) to deal with the
hassle of getting replacements in a foreign country.
6. If we _________ (to take) the wrong bus, we _________ (to end up) in a
completely di erent city, confused and disoriented.
7. If the airline _________ (to cancel) our ight, we _________ (to spend) an
unexpected night in the overcrowded airport terminal.
8. If the food _________ (to be) properly cooked, we _________ (to su er) from
food poisoning during our vacation.
9. If we _________ (to rent) a reliable car, we _________ (to be) stranded on a
deserted road in the middle of nowhere.
10. If the hotel _________ (to double-book) our room, we _________ (to be forced)
to sleep on uncomfortable sofas in the lobby.
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 Exercise 7
Read a short story and complete the sentences with your own ideas.

Little Sailboat, Big Adventure

Several years ago my husband, daughter and I decided on a day trip. We rented a
daysailer from Morehead heading to Shackleford Island to picnic and see the wild
horses.

Finally the island was in front of us and we got out on the shore to eat our lunch.
Mosquitoes decided we were their lunch! The sky suddenly changed, clouds and
wind appeared from nowhere. We climbed back on the boat and sought to get out
while we could. The powerful wind blew us into the Beaufort Harbor into an empty
boat slip next to a yacht. The owner was not pleased as the wind was bumping us
into him. The owner of the boat slip approaching in his shing boat was even more
displeased. We felt quite helpless until a Good Samaritan appeared. Seeing our
distress, he towed us back to Morehead. Next time, we will take the ferry!

1. If we had known about the mosquitoes, we…

2. If the sky hadn't suddenly changed, we…
3. If the owner of the yacht hadn't been unhappy with our presence, we…
4. If the wind hadn't been pushing us into the yacht, …
5. If the Good Samaritan hadn't appeared, …
6. If the Good Samaritan hadn't towed us back to Morehead, …
7. If we had known about the ferry option earlier, …

Exercise 8
Go back to Exercise 2 and create sentences in the third conditional to
describe hypothetical outcomes based on the situations.

Example:
Just my luck! The moment I arrived, the heavens
opened up and it poured like crazy. I had to walk around
with a soaking wet umbrella, looking like a drowned rat.

If I had checked the weather forecast, I wouldn’t have

gone for a walk!

Exercise 9
Re ect on a past vacation that didn't go as
planned. Discuss your experience with your
partner and explain what you would have done
di erently using the third conditional.
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